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TRANSCRIPTS OF SOME DESCRIPTIONS OF CALIFORNIAN GENERA AND SPECIES.-V.

By J. BURTT Davy.

SILENE (MELANDRYUM) TILINGI, E. Regel. 1

Perennis. Caules adscendentes, plus minus ramosi, puberulo-hirtuli. Folia opposita, ovata v. ovato-oblonga, acuta, inferiora in petiolum brevem attenuata, superiora subsessilia, puberulo-hirta. Flores in cymam foliosam glanduloso-puberulam paucifloram dispositi, initio terminales solitarii, deinde alares. Calyx cylindricus, vix inflatus, pedunculum superans, decemstriatus, glanduloso-puberulus; striae concolores, superne v. a medio venis anastomosantibus conjunctae; dentes anguste lanceolati, attenuato-acuti, angustissime hyalino-marginati, margine glanduloso-puberuli. Petala coccinea; unguibus glabris inclusis; lamina quadripartita, lobis medianis oblongis bilobis, lateralibus anguste linearibus acutis brevioribus; appendicibus brevibus denticulatis. Capsula (in statu immaturo) elliptico-oblonga, carpophorum circiter duplo superans, stylis 3 filiformibus coronata.

Affinis S. laciniatae et Greggii. Prima foliis lanceolatis v. lineari-lanceolatis, inflorescentia racemosa eglandulosa, calycis paullo ampliati striis anastomosantibus dentibus late albo-marginatis ciliatis,―altera racemi ramis plerumque unifloris, calycis dentibus late albo-marginatis obtusis dignoscitur.

Semina legit Cl. Tiling in California prope Nevada City.

1 Animadversiones de Plantis vivis nonnullis Horti Botanici Imperialis Petropolitani, auctore E. Regel, p. 99. [Published in Acta Horti Petropolitani, Tom. i, pp. 89–100, (1871-72): also issued as an excerpt with pages numbered 1-12.]

The thanks of myself and others who may benefit by these transcripts are due to Miss Eastwood, Curator of the Herbarium of the California Academy of Sciences, for permission to copy the originals of this and the following of Regel's descriptions.

HORKELIA TILINGI, E. Regel, 2 foliolis apice 3-5 dentatis.Caule erecto, pedali et ultra, basi laxe patenti-hirsuto, apicem versus glabro; foliis praecipue ad marginem laxe villosis, pinnatis; foliolis 5-9, foliorum radicalium ovatooblongis, pollicem et ultra longis, fol. caulinorum cuneatooblongis, omnibus apice 3-5 dentatis, cæterum integerrimis; stipulis palmatifido-laciniatis, laciniis linearibus; cymis pedunculatis, subcapitatis; pedicellis calycibusque glanduloso-pubescentibus; calycibus pedicellum superantibus, segmentis accessoriis linearibus, quam vera triangulari-lanceolata subduplo brevioribus; petalis albis, linearibus, calycis segmenta circiter aequantibus; staminibus 10; filamentis angustis subfiliformibus.

In California prope Nevada city, legit Cl. Tiling.

ASTER SCORZONERIFOLIUS, E. Regel; perennis; caule circiter 25 c. m. alto, simplici, folioso, basi glabro, apicem versus puberulo; foliis radicalibus linearibus, longissimis, caulem superantibus v. æquantibus, canaliculatis, integerrimis, plerumque 5-nerviis, glabris; foliis caulinis 9-10, sessilibus, e basi latiore lineari-lanceolatis, integerrimis, decrescentibus, inferioribus glabris trinerviis, superioribus uninerviis, margine v. undique puberulis; capitulis pro genere maximis, in apice caulis solitariis v. rarius in ramulo bevi axillaribus; involucri late campanulati squamis imbricatis, 5-serialibus, canescenti-puberulis (nec glandulosis), lineari-lanceolatis, acutis, apice laxe patulis, quam flores disci brevioribus; ligulis pallide-violaceis, lineari-lanceolatis, apice acutis integris v. minute bidentatis, patulis, 15 c. m.

2 Revisio Specierum Crataegorum, Dracaenarum, Horkeliarum, Laricum et Azalearum: auctore E. Regel, p. 153 [Published in Acta Horti Petropolitani Tom. i, pp. 101-164, (1871-1872): also issued as an excerpt with pages numbered 1--64. Though the title-page of this volume bears date 1871-1872, pages 283 to 586 comprise an article by F. von Herder which is dated at the end "St. Petersb. d. 13. (25) Febr. 1873."] Horkelia Tilingi was figured in Gartenflora 1872, t. 711: it is the Potentilla Tilingi of Professor Greene.

3 Acta Horti Petropolitani, ii. 308 (1873): Gartenflora, 1873, p. 1.

longis, involucrum duplo superantibus; floribus disci flavidis, stylo longe exserto; stigmatis lobis linearibus, erectis, undique papillosis; achæniis hirtis, pappo flores disci superante coronatis. Habitus A. alpini. Proxime A. Kingii, Wats. (in Report of the Geological exploration of the fortieth parallel, volume V., Botany, by Sereno Watson pag. 141. tab xvi) affinis. Posterior caule 2-3 pollicari, foliis radicalibus caule brevioribus lanceolato-spathulatis basi ciliatis, foliis caulinis paucis (2-3), involucro glandulosopulverulento, ligulis brevioribus albis, stylo incluso, stigmatibus tantum breviter exsertis facile dignoscitur. Semina cl. Roezl in Californiae Sierra Nevada collegit.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND NEWS.

ANOTHER of the handsome volumes from the Missouri Botanical Garden has come to us in the shape of the Sixth Annual Report. The scientific papers contained therein have for the most part been issued separately in advance. With these are fifty-six plates. This volume in itself is abundant evidence, if evidence be needed, that the endowment of Henry Shaw is under wise control.

HENRI BAILLON, the most distinguished French botanist of the time, died in the latter part of July. The wide celebrity which he enjoyed was largely attained by the production of the "Histoire des Plantes" and "Dictionnaire de Botanique." He was an ardent admirer of Adanson and was the editor of Adansonia during the life of that periodical.

PROFESSOR E. L. GREENE, who has been botanizing for several weeks in the Sierras, in Nevada and in Wyoming, is now located in his new quarters in the Catholic University, Washington, D. C.

NOTES ON THE GENUS NEMOPHILA.

By F. T. BIOLETTI.

Among the most noticeable of Californian annuals are the showy Nemophilas of the Menziesii group. About half a dozen species have been described by various authors, namely, Douglas, Bentham, Hooker and Arnott, Fischer and Meyer. These in Gray's Flora of North America were reduced to two, Nemophila insignis, Dougl., and N. Menziesii, H. & A. N. pedunculata, Benth., a species which properly belongs to this group, although the flowers are minute, has been recognised by Prof. Greene in the "Manual of the Botany of the Bay Region." Most of the species originally described were known to their authors in the fresh state, while the uniting of species has been done principally by those who have studied the plants as dried specimens.

The characters which have been chiefly used in the differentiation of species in this group, such as the size and pubescence of the plant, the form of the leaves, the color and markings of the corolla are extremely variable. Plants unquestionably of the same species from different localities, and even plants growing side by side, show great diversity in leaf outline and pubescence. The calyx and ovary present some good characters but the calyx appendages vary greatly in size and shape, being occasionally completely absent. The small flowered Nemophila (N. pedunculata, Benth. ?) growing on the San Francisco sand hills is often without calyx appendages and I have found N. atomaria with only one or two, the others not having developed. As Bentham first pointed out, the inter-staminal scales, or appendages, of the corolla are fairly constant in form in the same species. In the present grouping of the species the form of these scales has alone been considered of primary, and the vegetative characters of only secondary specific value. The corolla appendages are ten in number and occur in pairs at the base of each filament. Fischer and Meyer, in their ERYTHEA, Vol. III., No. 10 [1 October, 1895].

excellent paper on this genus, distinguish three kinds of corolla appendages: (a) scales with free tips; (b) scales adnate their whole length; and (c) hairy lines. Of the three species described in this paper, two have appendages of the first kind, with distinctly free tips. The other species has very narrow and very hairy scales and was probably included by Fischer and Meyer in the last class.

Either of the original descriptions of Nemophila Menziesii and of N. insignis would apply equally well to either of our two common large, blue Nemophilas. Hooker and Arnott who considered N. insignis a variety of N. Menziesii note no difference but the relative size of corolla and calyx. Now the form with reduced or abortive anthers has almost constantly flowers of about half the size of those of the perfect form. Is it not possible that Hooker and Arnott had these two forms before them when they united the species? However this may be, the descriptions proper are practically identical and can, therefore, be applied but to one plant. In a note Hooker and Arnott state that the leaves of N. Menziesii are exactly those of N. parviflora, which if constantly true, would exclude the name from use for either of the two plants to which it has been applied in recent works. It seems impossible to determine which plant received the name of N. Menziesii on account of the meagreness of the description. The type specimen is of little use, as Prof. Greene, who has lately seen it, states that it is without flowers and, therefore, impossible of determination. N. insignis, on the contrary, was figured in the Botanical Register in 1834, undoubtedly from the same plants from which Bentham drew up his description. From this there can be little doubt to which species this name was applied, though the form of the corolla scales is not very clearly brought out. A somewhat incomplete specimen of a large, blue-flowered Nemophila collected by Mr. Burtt Davy on Loma Prieta has leaves very closely resembling those of what seems to be the type of N. parviflora. The flowers are very hairy at the base of the corolla and apparently without scales.